• Former Rep. Justin Amash said several relatives were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a Gaza church.
• Gazan authorities said that hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering at the church.

Former Rep. Justin Amash said that several of his relatives were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza.

He said “with great sadness” he had confirmed his relatives had died, including Viola and Yara, who he shared a photograph of on X, formerly known as Twitter. He did not specify how he was related to them.

Amash said his relatives were sheltering in the church, which is Gaza’s oldest, when an airstrike destroyed part of the complex.

“The Palestinian Christian community has endured so much. Our family is hurting badly. May God watch over all Christians in Gaza—and all Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering, whatever their religion or creed,” Amash wrote.

Amash served as the US representative for Michigan’s 3rd congressional district from 2011 to 2021, initially as a Republican and then as an independent.

He was born in Michigan to Palestinian and Syrian Christian parents who had immigrated to the United States.

An explosion struck the church in Gaza on Thursday evening, where hundreds of displaced Palestinians were sheltering, the enclave’s Hamas-controlled authorities said.

At least 18 people were killed in the attack, according to Al Jazeera.

The church’s owners, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, condemned the attack in a statement and said it constituted a “war crime.”

“Targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children, and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past thirteen days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored,” the statement said.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that “a wall of a church in the area was damaged” as a result of the IDF strike, in a statement to CNN.

They said that IDF fighter jets struck a “command and control center belonging to a Hamas terrorist involved in the launching of rockets and mortars toward Israel.”

“We are aware of reports on casualties. The incident is under review,” the statement read.

Israel has bombarded Gaza with airstrikes following the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7, which killed at least 1,400 Israelis.

Subsequent strikes on Gaza have killed 3,785 people, according to the enclave’s authorities.